Threatens lawsuit if county adopts current proposed regulations

By
Jim Johnson, Monterey Herald

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Monterey County >> With the county Planning Commission poised to consider the latest proposed vacation rental regulations for unincorporated Monterey County, Carmel Highlands resident Bob Danziger wants the voters to decide.

Danziger is calling for a voter initiative aimed at banning short-term rentals entirely in the county’s residential areas, and is threatening a potential lawsuit against the county challenging environmental review if and when vacation rental rules are adopted.

He said he is advocating for a voter-approved ban, which could apply countywide or perhaps just in the coastal zone, and a possible lawsuit. This comes after years of participating in the county’s process for considering short-term rental regulation, which he said has continued to trend toward more permissive rules and culminated in the most recent iteration to be considered by the commission during Wednesday’s meeting set to start at 9:30 a.m. at the County Government Center.

At the same time, Danziger acknowledges there’s not yet any formal organization to back either a voter initiative or a lawsuit, though he said there are already contributors promising money and a number of community-based organizations from Pacific Grove to Carmel Highlands and Big Sur expressing opposition to STRs.

“I’m really putting it out there to begin the discussion,” Danziger said. “Up to now I assumed our concerns would be considered (by the county) but that hasn’t happened. They’ve actually gone backwards. It’s time to get off the game board and take action.”

According to Danziger, the county has thus far essentially ignored the potential impact of allowing hundreds of vacation rentals including on the area’s water supply, traffic, and other critical local infrastructure and community benefits, and run afoul of local land use plans that he argued clearly prohibit such activity. He said any county ordinance should prompt a full environmental impact report, and anything short of that would be a violation of the law.

The recent explosion of the local vacation rental industry, prompted largely by the advent of online platforms like AirBnB, VRBO, and others, represents in effect a “hostile takeover of county planning by Silicon Valley,” Danziger said.

“We need to decide what kind of community we want to have,” he said.

He acknowledges a personal stake in the issue after years of living near a short-term rental also used for special events that he said prompted so many complaints that it eventually shut down and converted to a long-term rental. The home is now vacant again, and Danziger said if it returns to its former use he would be forced to move.

Danziger has begun drafting the outlines of a voter initiative based on short-term rental bans in West Hollywood and Santa Barbara, and other communities have done. It would prohibit renting out any dwelling unit, including single-family homes, apartments, condos and guest houses, for less than 31 days, and ban all advertising of such activity. There would be no “grace period” and violators would face fines of between 400 and 800 percent of the advertised rental rates, or between $1,000 and $5,000.